196
Newspapers 197
Schools 198
Objects and Form of Persecution 203

CHAP. V. Progress 206
Conditions of Progress 209
Charity 213
Arts and Inventions 216
Multiplicity of Objects 218

CHAP. VI. Discourse 221

PART III. MECHANICAL METHODS 231

HOW TO OBSERVE.

MORALS AND MANNERS.

PART I.

REQUISITES FOR OBSERVATION.

INTRODUCTION.

"Inest sua gratia parvis."

"Les petites choses n'ont de valeur que de la part de ceux qui
peuvent s'elever aux grandes."--DE JOUY.

There is no department of inquiry in which it is not full as easy to
miss truth as to find it, even when the materials from which truth is to
be drawn are actually present to our senses. A child does not catch a
gold fish in water at the first trial, however good his eyes may be, and
however clear the water; knowledge and method are necessary to enable
him to take what is actually before his eyes and under his hand. So it
is with all who fish in a strange element for the truth which is living
and moving there: the powers of observation must be trained, and habits
of method in arranging the materials presented to the eye must be
acquired before the student possesses the requisites for understanding
what he contemplates.

The observer of Men and Manners stands as much in need of intellectual
preparation as any other student. This is not, indeed, generally
supposed, and a multitude of travellers act as if it were not true. Of
the large number of tourists who annually sail from our ports, there is
probably not one who would dream of pretending to make observations on
any subject of physical inquiry, of which he did not understand even the
principles. If, on his return from the Mediterranean, the unprepared
traveller was questioned about the geology of Corsica, or the public
buildings of Palermo, he would reply, "Oh, I can tell you nothing about
that--I never studied geology; I know nothing about architecture." But
few, or none, make the same avowal about the morals and manners of a
nation. Every man seems to imagine that he can understand me